


Lipstuck

by VioletSmith



Series: Suits You Fine [3]
Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Couch Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, Guitars, Kissing, Lipstick & Lip Gloss, M/M, Makeup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22517428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletSmith/pseuds/VioletSmith
Summary: Sometimes it's easier to give the things we want than to ask for them.
Relationships: Todd Brotzman & Dirk Gently, Todd Brotzman/Dirk Gently
Series: Suits You Fine [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616671
Comments: 10
Kudos: 73





	Lipstuck

Todd doesn’t worry about what society thinks. Or, at least, he has been consciously trying not to and he feels he’s made significant progress. He worries about a lot of things; he worries about money and Amanda and global warming and how often the Universe seems to send life-endangering situations their way, and he worries about Dirk, god, he worries so damn much about Dirk – about his past, his future, his naivety, about how he doesn’t seem to understand how cruel life can be sometimes and about how at the same time, Todd knows, he understands how cruel life can be all too well. It’s too much for one person to worry about, he’s decided. Something has to be edged out, and Dirk’s right, society doesn’t have the first clue about them and their life together and is going to have to worry about itself.

But it’s still hard to put some things into words. Easier by far to accept Dirk just exactly as he is than to extend the same courtesy to himself, to verbalise the stuff he thinks about sometimes at night while Dirk’s fast asleep and it feels safe to let his mind wander about a bit and bump into new things.

So that’s why, when he buys it, he buys it for Dirk.

And it’s easy, because he knows Dirk better than he’s ever known anything or anyone, to pick one he’s sure Dirk will love. He wraps it in some of the glittery gift wrap they have left over from Farah’s birthday and leaves it on the kitchen table while Dirk’s in the shower.

“What’s this?” he asks when he notices it, hair still a little wet but already combed neatly to the side, only slightly dampening the collar of his lavender paisley shirt.

“It’s for you.”

“It’s not my birthday.”

Todd shrugs, and stares hard at his almost empty cup of coffee. “It’s not a birthday present.”

It’s a small package and Todd may have over used the tape. It takes Dirk a while to get the wrapping off, but when he does his eyes go very round.

“Oh!” he says.

Todd glances up. “Is that a good oh?” He hopes it’s a good oh.

“It’s a lipstick.”

“Yeah.” Todd can feel the worry starting up again. “I know you don’t usually wear it. But I thought, maybe you might like to?”

Dirk is turning the lipstick around and around in his hands, looking at it as if it were a puzzling artefact. “Would _you_ like me to wear it?”

The worry kicks up a gear. “No! I mean, I wouldn’t not like it. I just thought… I wanted to show you that I really don’t care about, about the skirts and nail polish and stuff, and what people think about it.”

“Oh. Well that’s very kind of you, Todd.” Todd’s shoulders slump in relief. Dirk smiles. “But I already knew.”

“You did?”

Dirk nods, but his full attention is on the little gold tube in his hands. He pops open the lid and twists the base. The lipstick is a very, very bright orange. Dirk’s eyes become even wider. “Oh _wow_.”

“Do you like it?”

Dirk jumps up onto his feet. “I’m going to try it on,” he declares happily, and bolts back into the bathroom.

It’s. Well. It’s _vivid_. It’s a bright, vivid orange and Dirk insists on wearing it out to the coffee shop they like to visit on Saturday mornings when they’ve not got a case on. It leaves a bright orange smudge on the white of Dirk’s cup. Todd realises he’s staring. He hurriedly shifts his attention back to his plate, and cuts the croissant in two (as he always does) so they can share it (as they always do).

The funny thing is, it doesn’t look as shocking as Todd expected it to. It just looks… right. It suits him. Like it’s always been there.

*

Chapstick is the closest Todd feels he can reasonably go at this point, so he takes to applying it often. His lips have never been so well moisturised. He strokes it onto them and imagines a streak of bold colour.

He likes the chapstick, but a part of him wishes he could stand side by side with Dirk at the mirror over the sink in their bathroom at home, with a tattered sponge bag full of brushes and paints, and blur some lines. Even acknowledging to himself that he wishes for that is a brand new, uneasy thing. He tries to give it space, and see what grows.

*

It’s late enough that people are starting to go home. Todd thinks that whatever clue or hint they were supposed to get or witness tonight, they must’ve missed it. There are still a few errant partygoers wandering about, but the rooms are significantly emptier than they were a couple of hours ago. This place is huge and they know no one here except the client, who is nowhere to be seen at this point. Todd thinks it must be nice, to be able to afford a place like this. A place that has a _games room._ Like, an entire room. Just for video games. Todd doesn't even particularly _like_ video games, but he can't deny that having enough space that each of your hobbies has its own separate door is pretty fucking luxurious.

They’re sprawled in the games room now on a wide corner sofa, him and Dirk and some people Todd doesn't remember or care about being introduced to. They’re opposite each other, he and Dirk, but their legs meet and tangle in the middle. Dirk is very earnestly explaining the interconnectedness of all things to a young woman sat next to him, whose attention seems to be primarily on the game of Mario Kart being played on the big screen on the far wall. He’s wearing the lipstick. It’s exactly the sort of trendy thing that fits in perfectly here.

The Universe may not have sent them anything case-related so far tonight, but it has seen fit to provide Todd with an acoustic guitar. Officially he’s watching it for a middle aged man named Dempsey who had shoved it into Todd’s arms and told him to “just hold onto this for me for a moment, will you?” before vanishing into the throng, but it’s been long enough since Dempsey left it in Todd’s custody that they’ve gotten comfortable together, him and the guitar. They’ve _bonded_ , okay, and Todd may have had a few drinks and he may or may not be a slightly emotional drunk, but he’s been strumming for a while, picking out odd tunes, humming to himself, and sometimes Dirk looks up and catches his eye and smiles a vivid orange smile and Todd is starting to feel… things.

“It suits you,” he says.

Dirk scrunches his face up in confusion, mouthing “what?”

There’s still enough background noise from the video games, the conversation, the stereo’s music filtering in from the next room, that it’s hard to be heard. Todd doesn’t want to raise his voice. He’s comfortable, lethargic, and he’s got to look after Dempsey’s guitar.

Fortunately Dirk solves the problem for him, disentangling their legs briefly enough to wriggle round until he’s lying the other way, half on top of Todd where he’s reclined so far that he’s almost horizontal, half on top of the guitar Todd is coming to think of as Dempsey Junior.

Dirk’s eyes are full of laughter. “What?” he says again, and Todd can hear him now. He realises he’s grinning like a fool, and can’t make himself stop.

“I said it suits you,” he repeats.

“Thank you,” Dirk says, evidently very pleased with himself. “Wait. What does?”

Boldly, Todd reaches out a finger and almost touches Dirk’s mouth. “The orange.”

Dirk’s entire attention is on Todd’s finger for a moment. He wriggles a little, getting more comfortable. The weight of him in Todd’s lap is warm and pleasant, except where Dempsey Junior is pressed between them. Todd shifts the guitar out of the way.

“I like it when you play the guitar,” says Dirk, and he’s still looking at Todd’s fingers.

“I could teach you.”

“Could you?” Dirk looks far more eager than Todd’s ill thought offer should really allow.

“Um. Probably?”

“Wow, thanks.” Dirk turns to look at Dempsey Jnr, which is now beside them on the outrageously oversized sofa, and his head is somehow lying on Todd’s chest. “I’ll be like your guitar assistant,” he says, as if that is a real thing.

“I don’t think that’s a real thing,” Todd says.

“It’s nice,” Dirk continues, as if he’s not heard him, “that we both get a chance to be the assistant.”

Todd’s finger finally touches Dirk’s mouth. Todd thinks it surprises him even more than Dirk. Dirk just lies there, unmoving, letting Todd touch him. The lipstick feels ever so slightly sticky. Different to the chapstick.

“Todd,” Dirk says, and Todd can feel the movement his mouth makes when saying his name. “Being an award winning detective...”

“You won an award?”

Dirk coughs. “Well. Not as _such_ , no. But I did once _find_ an award, and I think that has to count for something.”

“You found an award.”

“Finding things is my job!”

Todd frowns. “I’m still not sure it counts.”

“Anyway,” Dirk continues loudly, “that’s beside the point. Being an _award finding_ detective, there are certain subtle, err, nuances, that I am able to pick up on that the ordinary person would no doubt miss, and from those almost imperceptible clues, invisible to the untrained and unprofessional eye, I am able to deduce things that may, come to think of it-”

“Dirk,” Todd interrupts gently, and with infinite patience. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve noticed that you’ve got a bit of a preoccupation with the lipstick.”

Oh. “Oh.”

“Yes.”

“Well. You’re not – totally wrong.”

“I’m never totally wrong,” Dirk says, smugly, settling in more comfortably still to Todd’s chest. Their legs are tangled together again, now that the guitar is out of the way. After a moment’s hesitation, Todd brings his arm up and settles it around Dirk’s shoulders. It feels… nice.

“I suppose I just thought… I thought it might be… interesting, to try it out.”

He feels Dirk nod. “Okay. Well, why don’t you?”

“What, now?”

Another nod.

“Right here?”

“Why not?”

Todd’s brain flails around for a moment, grasping for a reason. It doesn’t really find anything to latch on to.

“Do you have it with you?”

Dirk’s face lights up, and then falls. “It’s in my coat.”

They both turn their heads and look towards the door. It seems like a long way back through the house to the cloakroom (seriously, who has a cloakroom in their house?) just to get a lipstick. Especially when it’s so comfortable here, Todd thinks, and he squeezes Dirk’s shoulder involuntarily.

When they look at each other again, suddenly face to face, it takes a second for Todd to realise how close they are.

Dirk’s smile turns impish, a little delighted with itself.

“I’ve had a good idea,” he says, as if imparting a secret.

And Todd opens his mouth to ask what it is, and Dirk kisses him.

Todd has only ever kissed women before. It doesn’t feel all that different, but he’s somehow hyper aware of the fact.

It’s a soft kiss, shallow and gentle, just the press of Dirk’s lips to his own, but it lingers. He loops his arms loosely around Dirk’s neck. He can feel it when Dirk smiles.

When Dirk pulls back his eyes flick down to Todd’s mouth. Todd feels a little dazed, like his brain can’t quite produce words any more.

“Lipstick,” Dirk says, fondly, still gazing at Todd’s mouth, where doubtless some of the bright, smudged colour has rubbed off onto his lips from Dirk's. "It suits you. But it isn't quite your colour, I think." And then, “Perhaps not the most efficient way to-”

But Todd is already pulling him close again, and their lips meet, and everything else is forgotten.


End file.
